(AFP) – Jan 28, 2008

DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladeshi authorities are to start house-to-house surveillance in their latest effort to stem a worsening outbreak of bird flu, an official said Monday.

The country's emergency government said the spread of avian flu, which has hit half the country, has become "alarming."

Three more districts reported outbreaks at the weekend, and wild birds have also been dropping dead.

"We are going to search house to house and bring each of more than 150,000 poultry farms under our active surveillance to prevent the spread," government spokesman Salahuddin Khan said.

"We're not panicked. But we have stepped up our action programme for greater public safety," Khan said.

Bangladesh was first hit by bird flu in February last year, and the disease has now hit 29 out of the country's 64 districts.

Officials said the situation in the impoverished country of 144 million was so wide in scope that even wild crows had been infected.

"It is an alarming situation. Hundreds of crows have died across the country due to the bird flu. Laboratory tests have confirmed that the crows died of H5N1 strain of the bird flu," a government science advisor said on Sunday.

"Farmers in some villages are throwing away dead chickens in canals and ponds, spreading the disease without knowing it. The government should make it an emergency health issue," added the official, who asked not to be named.

Experts had said earlier this month that the situation was far worse than initial government claims because farmers failed to report many cases.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday that Bangladesh needed house-to-house surveillance because the situation had worsened and was "posing a danger to public health".

Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country, with nearly 1,000 people per square kilometre (2,600 per square mile).

Experts fear bird flu could mutate and develop into a form that can easily spread from human to human.

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